There was little question as to who would be the primary Gainesway Guest of the Week on this week's edition of the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. Trainer Cherie DeVaux not only won the GI Kentucky Derby with Golden Tempo (Curlin), she also became the first female trainer to win the race.
But there were so many good storylines out of this year's Derby, that the podcast split off into three parts. In what we are calling the “TDN Writers' Room Podcast Overtime” we also featured in-depth interviews with winning Jockey Jose Ortiz and winning co-owner Daisy Phipps Pulito in separate podcasts. Stay tuned for those episodes in the coming days.
DeVaux has been a media darling since her victory and her appearances have included segments on the CBS Morning News and the Today Show. She understands why a victory in the Derby by a female trainer resonated with the public and the media, and that it is important to be a role model.
“To be honest, none of this, the enormity of it, has sunk in,” she said. “It's been a whirlwind. I wasn't really expecting to be whisked off to New York City and go all over different studios and get to be a representative for the industry. It's been fun, but I'm averaging about four hours of sleep a night. I am looking forward to a regular bedtime and getting some semblance of normalcy. It's not going to be normal for a while and I have to acknowledge that something happened in my life that is going to change it forever.
“I don't view my gender as being a female trainer as my whole identity, but I do acknowledge that being a female in the racehorse world is a big deal when big things happen,” she said. “I'm a person that just has always done my own thing. You guys have known me for quite some time. So if I can just be myself and be true to myself and that inspires others, then why not take advantage of that?”
Though Golden Tempo was sent off at odds of 23-1, DeVaux said she was growing increasingly confident as the week progressed.
“I was very confident in Golden Tempo,” she said. “He has trained so well throughout the winter. He trained even better when we freshened him a little bit and just gave him a little bit more time. And physically, he looked fantastic. He's kind of always been a little bit on the heavier side. He really started to trim up. And then the week of the Derby, he went from being a horse that was as quiet as a church mouse to something different. We're coming off the track and he's nickering at the pony trying to audition for his hopeful next career. So that gave me a lot of confidence.”
It has taken some quality horsemen decades to win a Kentucky Derby. Some of the very best have never won the race. DeVaux did it in just her eighth year as a trainer. How?
“Well, I don't think it's fair to say how did I make it happen?” she said. “It happened. In the beginning, we were just trying to persevere. We went almost a full year without winning a race. So it was almost seven years of training and winning races before we got here. I made a conscious effort and thought in the beginning of my career that my core principle was going to always be to put the horse first. And I'm going to surround myself with clients and a support team that had that same concept in mind. And I think that to do this and to be successful, the horses have to be the priority along with the care of each individual horse. But you have to have the clients behind you. And I'm so grateful for these clients, St. Elias, the Violas and the Phipps family. I'm also thankful for every other client who has supported me in this journey.”
The “Fastest Horses of the Week” was T O Elvis (Volatile), the Japanese import who won the GI Churchill Downs Stakes. He earned a 108 Beyer. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar, which stands the sire Life Is Good.
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV, the KTOB and West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Bill Finley, and Zoe Cadman gave their thoughts on the many stories that came out in the Derby. There was speculation that Renegade (Into Mischief) may have won the race if he had not been banged around at the start after breaking from the one hole. They talked of how successful the move to shift the GI Kentucky Oaks to primetime television turned out to be and discussed the massive late odds drops on T O Elvis courtesy of the CAW players and how that had to have left a bad taste in the mouths of every “regular” player who wagered on the horse.
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